Betwixt the Flowers and the Soil
by waterlightmagick
Summary: It's been 3 years since Ogami and the others split from Sakura and her bright, shining world of normalcy. But a lull in evil has brought the pair together again on a warm, sunny day, in a park, all alone. TAKES PLACE AFTER CH. 230


It was surprisingly warm that day, with the spring finally taking over the winter. Flowers had begun to bloom and were quickly sending the bees in a frenzy. Birds were singing all throughout the day, only stopping to rest for a few hours at night, as they snuggled down into their nests. And all around, couples were strolling together, holding hands and laughing at the inside jokes that knew meaning only to each other. It was beautiful, Sakura thought while looking up into the sky. Swinging her bag, she retreated from the bench she had been occupying and put a skip in her steps, heading towards the park's new flower garden. Pushing open the wooden gate, an array of colors brightened her vision, and her smile grew larger as a butterfly flitted up from a rosebush and landed on her sleeve, clearly drawn to the bright yellow fabric. It closed it's wings and patted almost curiously around the cloth, seemingly comfortable with this new specimen of flora, before a dark shadow was cast overhead and sent the creature fluttering along its way.

"I see you're still good at making friends."

Her heart skipped. It was a voice she had heard countless times; though by now more times in her head than spoken aloud. She'd heard it speak flourishes of words, in times both good and bad; broken and desperate, angry and frustrated, and at rarer moments, relieved- almost giddy. Something that drew up such a response in her, had been such a huge part of her life- it had constantly left her breathless. But those times were nothing, she knew, to compare to how it made her feel now.

In the midst of turning around, she managed to catch her foot on her own ankle, and was sent crashing to the ground, landing in a rather uncompromising position. He hadn't caught her, and didn't seem to be in a hurry to help her up; rather he simply stared, covered his mouth with his hand and shook almost violently on the spot, his deep blue eyes filled with mirth. Sakura, on the other hand, sat dumbfounded in the dirt, gazing up at the boy she'd been catching only glances of for the past three years, and absently taking note of the soil catching under her fingernails, as if to recognize that yes, this was real.  
It was a whole minute and a half before he broke his chain of laughter, tears beginning to glisten in his eyes. There was a pause and he crouched down, taking in her now disheveled appearance and smirking good-naturedly.

"You know, no one makes me laugh like you."

"...I," Her jaw quivered. The man eyed her expectantly. "I thought it would be...much longer before...um, I mean, you...have you eradicated all evil?"

"Evil will never die, Sakurakouji-san," The sound of him saying her name sent a shiver down her spine, and she had to take in a quick breath. It had been so long. He seemed unaffected, and the sudden thought that he perhaps often spoke it aloud to himself sent a warmth spreading quickly all the way from her head to her toes. "But for now, I think I've gotten a good bit of it running the opposite way."  
Sakura didn't know what to say. It was so sudden. She'd been anticipating their reunion for years now- part of her, the cowardly part, wondered if she would ever see him again; that maybe he would go on fighting evil forever and never enter her bright, normal life again. There were so many questions she wanted answered, so many statements she wanted to make; like "I missed you," and "I love you," and "I'm so _so_ glad you're here, because without you it's so much harder to be strong, and I'm actually doing fine but not nearly as good as I would be if you were here with me," and "Why couldn't you at least stop by for your birthday, huh? I know we both agreed on this, but is fighting evil really better than sharing some cake? Huh? For _one_ night?" So she opened her mouth, and...

"You've gotten taller."

Yes, perfect.  
She would have slapped herself if her hadn't given her another smirk, and lowered himself down to his hands and knees, uncaring of the dirt staining his pants.  
"Ah. I haven't really checked, but I suppose I have. After all it's been a few years," _3 years, 4 months and 27 days,_ "But I don't think I'm as tall as that guy who keeps visiting your apartment. Keichiro, isn't it? He brings you flowers."  
"Ah, yes, Keichiro-kun! He works at a plant nursery, so he's always bringing some over. They kind of keep dying on me, though..."  
"Hmm," came his reply, and she noticed him crawling slightly closer. "Perhaps you should invest in some plastic ones, then."  
Their closing proximity was beginning to make Sakura feel a bit light-headed, and she let out a half-hearted laugh, followed by the assumption that her friend would probably still try to give them to her since there were always unsold ones at the nursery, and his house was too full to take many more.  
The man in front of her slowed his pace, and looked straight at her, holding steady eye contact as she swallowed nervously, before blinking and casting his gaze toward a nearby bush. In a sudden moment of clarity, the girl noticed that no one else around was to be seen, and silently pondered if the clouds darkening overhead had anything to do with their now private park.  
"You know," came the code:breaker's voice, jerking her back to the conversation. "I could've sworn that I saw your _friend_ blush when you smiled at him the other day."  
_Just how close an eye was he keeping on her?  
_"Ah, yes, Keichiro-kun has these allergies that make his face get all red-"  
"And he's been bringing you gifts,"  
"The flowers he gets for free, and the chocolate and cds he just likes to share-"  
"And so I wonder," He swung his gaze back to her, his old mask clearly in place, causing her to take a sharp inhale of breath. "If Sakurakouji-san has been seeing other men while I've been away?"

The blush exploded across her face, her eyes widening with shock and fingers clenching at the dirt as his smile reached master levels of accusation.  
"W-wha?! No! NO, I would never! I- I hadn't even thought of- I mean, I didn't ever want to- Do you even still- I just- **NO-**"

And he was kissing her. It wasn't like the first time (delivered by her as a desperate, competitive act in hopes of making him change his ways), or even the second (given, surprisingly, by him, in order to stop a little girl from crying, and officially save the day), but it was soft and warm, and something that Sakura had been missing for _far_ too long. Just as always, it was only after she had fallen for his teasing that she would understand the true intentions behind his words and actions. And for the second time, she came to realize that this poor, broken, then beautifully repaired "delinquent" of hers could so easily express himself in these bodily terms. A rose-colored colored kiss would break it down for her- what he was feeling; the things that he meant; how much he missed her; and maybe even the average flight speed of an African Swallow (for a moment, it vaguely crossed her mind that this was another power of his, dormant and unused for so long, and that they obviously must train tirelessly to further strengthen it up).

Their lips broke apart, and the Rare Kind found herself staring up into her lover's eyes, with his blue orbs half lidded and gazing back, though seemingly out of focus, as if he was still mesmerized by the contact. It wasn't until she felt a shift by her ear that Sakura had noticed that at some point during the kiss, his left hand had come up and tangled itself in her hair. Now he slid his fingers down through her long, dark locks and lightly grazed her cheek before bringing it back to the ground. There was a moment of silence before he coughed, pointed at her face and murmured,  
"You might want to wash once you get home."

The look of confusion that crossed her face became one of amusement as she rubbed away the dirt that had been left behind by man's careless palm. Remembering now their situation, the girl hopped up on one knee and pushed herself to her feet. The power user did the same, and began lightly dusting his hands on his pants. Sakura smiled, watching him flick the bangs out of his eyes as a light drizzle began to fall, leaving slightly dark dots of of moisture on his shoulders. But the dream-like state was abruptly ended as a flash of lightning shot across the sky, and a thunderclap erupted like a grand firework.  
She squeaked in terror and stiffened, the sound too much to handle without proper warning. But the arms wrapped gently around her head were more than enough of a distraction from the sky's angry cry as they pulled her in and pressed her ear against their owner's chest; his nearly steady heartbeats soothing away any fear brought on by the noise. Her own arms wrapped tightly around his torso, and she gripped at the fabric covering his back, letting out a soft laugh at all the stains his clothing was now sure to have.  
Tears welled up in the Rare Kind's eyes, falling rapidly with the hardening rain.

"I missed you, Ogami."

She felt him shiver. He was home.

...

Hey, people. So since I was totally uncool with the way that Code: Breaker ended (been following that story for 6 years, and we get that rushed pile of mess), I decided to type out my emotions into this here fanfiction. It's supposed to take place three years after the last chapter (which I have only seen roughly translated, so I'm not sure if I actually got the details right, but myeh), rather than the 5 that the bonus chapter is supposed to show us, because I would super love to see Ogami and Sakura officially together by then (crossing my fingers for married or at least engaged. AT LEAST.), but they probably need to meet up again for that first, right? Hey, I could be wrong. Kid's these days, huh? HENYWHO, being the type of person who views shojos as too mushy and cliche, but then doesn't care about anything in shonens BUT the romance, I whipped this up in...I wanna say a jiffy, but the truth is it took me an embarrassingly long time because I couldn't decide if a good deal of the sentences I used actually work(ed). I WHIPPED IT UP IN AN EMBARRASSINGLY PROLONGED JIFFY, because Kamijyo could show injured Toki getting eaten alive by savage wolves, but as long as she gives me some good, solid, heart-pounding, stomach-fluttering, squeal-worthy Ogakura in that bonus chapter, I am A-OK. But if not, I'm just going to read my own fanfic over and over again, try not cry, probably cry, and then lie in bed eating tiramisu ice cream for a week.

Please forgive any spelling and grammatical errors, as english is my first language, and thus I don't know it nearly as well as a foreigner.


End file.
